Sport: An Empty Dream: Len Bias dies at 22

Len Bias dies at 22

One day he was drafted No. 1 by the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association, what he called a "dream within a dream." The next day he made a lavish deal to wear Reebok shoes. On the third day, he died. No dream is emptier than death at 22, but the cruel death last week of Len Bias, the All- America from Maryland, got crueler. Cocaine was implied, maybe an experimental first taste. Friends considered even that unthinkable, but if the substance found in his car and system was cocaine, then in some dazzling order more rapid than a heartbeat,...